A farm is inspiration. A farm is faith. A farm is tedium, excitement, and waiting all bound into the simplest of ideas with the most complex follow through: you'll grow food for people to eat, but who is going to buy it, and when? When and where will you plant it, water it, and harvest it? Where will you store it until they buy it? How will they get it: a farmer's market, a CSA, a grocery store, a restaurant, a hotel?

Melons, squash, kale, turnips, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, corn, or okra don't require you to believe that they will grow to maturity in order to be pollinated and bear fruit. The threads that bind a farmer to sanity are strengthened by it. To put sweat and money and gas and water into an idea takes a certain kind of person with a high level of stability.

Farmers buy retail, sell wholesale, and pay shipping both ways. It's hard to see their point of view. To see beyond the $4 bunch of kale or the $6 half pound of baby greens, but try to see it like a farm girl. This is our life and our work. Come to the farmer's market to buy what's grown now. Cook it and eat it and be happy. That's the simple idea we put our backs into.

You won't get pie-eyed listening to Lauren Cucinotta share with host, Carole Murko, how she created an annual pie contest/event in Brooklyn's Prospect Park. Lauren's vision is for her "Pie in the Park" contest to become a national event that fosters community through the baking, eating and sharing of pie - pie memories, pie secrets, pie everything! So inspired by the popularity of her event and the constant flow of pie recipes coming her way, Lauren will be self-publishing her first book. And, yes, it's called Pie in the Park!! You can find Laura on twitter and tumblr or google Pie in the Park.

And for our listeners and followers please share your pie memories, recipes or tips - we know you have one!!

In celebration of the longest day of the year and the first harvest of summer we are hosting a Solstice Soiree at Boulderwood Farm! Every year during the solstice the sun shines directly down the second floor hallway making a spectacular light display as if Boulderwood was Stonehenge itself. Since it is amusing to extend metaphors, we, the misplaced druids, took it as a sign that we must party!

Tonight our table will boast fresh from the sea Maine lobsters, burgers of all breeds, beef, lamb and turkey, radish dip, garlic scape and white bean dip, garlic scape pesto (delicious on burgers!), roasted fingerling potatoes, lush green salad and local blueberry pies for dessert. You might be wondering how we can have lobsters without corn but we are sticking to the harvest theme and will have to throw another party once corn is in season.

Ahhhhh...it's friday and thoughts of the weekend are beginning to seep into my psyche. Will there be enough hours to finally weed and plant my vegetable garden, get in some much needed exercise and plan a father's day celebration for Jim with his three kids. My Dad, however, will get all my love and well wishes delivered to him through the airwaves and, of course, the phone!! His gift from me was the trip to Shelburne Farms, VT for the cheesemaking extravaganza we attended last weekend.

So what will I be concocting? Well, it's garlic scape and strawberry season so it would be fitting have both items on the menu. As for the main course, I am thinking barbecue ribs....I'll be attempting something out of Jason Day and Aaron Chronister's book, BBQ Makes Everything Taste Better .

Here's a great recipe that I tore out of the New York Times a couple of years ago forWhite Bean and Garlic Scape Dip:

3-4 garlic scapes (but I use twice as many!!)

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 can cannelini beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 cup olive oil

ground pepper to taste

I like adding a few drops of tabasco!!

Add sliced scapes, salt, pepper and lemon juice in a food processor and process until finely chopped, then add cannelini beans and process to a rough puree. With motor running drizzle in the olive oil. (The recipe calls for some water but I leave it out. It suggests 2-3 Tbsp to make the mixture the consistency of a dip. I like more of a spread!)

And, for the strawberries - how about some ice cream. You'll need and ice cream maker. (I have a cuisinart and don't forget to put the ice cream bowl in the freezer for 12 hours or so.)

Strawberry Ice Cream:

1-2 pints of strawberries, stemmed and sliced

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 cup sugar - I use organic

1 cup whole milk

2 cups heavy cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

Combine strawberries, 1/3 cup sugar and lemon juice and let "macerate" for 2 hours. Mix milk and 2/3 cup sugar with a hand blender until dissolved and add with the vanilla and heavy cream and liquid from macerated strawberries into the ice cream freezer bowl and turn on ice cream maker and churn for 25 minutes. Then add strawberries for 5 more minutes, place in freezer-safe container and let set up in freezer for an hour or so or eat immediately for a soft-serve consistency.

So the day length is staggering as we approach the solstice. I sleep before the light leaves the sky and awaken to a foggy brightness every morning at five. The exhaustion from constant work erodes my free time into reading, eating, talking, and sleeping. I can't muster the energy to get on the lovely icelandics in the pasture down below, to hike the trails so close, or to bike along the scenic roads.This same fatigue applies to writing. I know you want a report on how much reemay we pulled out of the fields today (four rolls, in fact, because of the warm weather and diminished threat of flea beetles) and that we have some lovely kohlrabi and radishes and baby turnips nearly ready to be eaten. But I can't provide all of that right now. You will have to wait until my daily stamina increases next week.